Solana, the cryptocurrency platform that FTX fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has recommended to his jail guards as a red-hot investment, has become ridden with racist and antisemitic coins.
Sleazy crypto entrepreneurs — looking to grab cash in the middle of the massive Bitcoin rebound — are using Solana’s blockchain platform to mint a slew of crypto tokens bearing N-word labels and swastika trading symbols.
On March 22, the two top trending tokens on the Solana blockchain were the “Jews did 9/11” and an Adolf Hitler-themed token, Mashable reported.
On Monday, “SolanaPepe” – a symbol of the alt-right movement – was in the top 30.
Anatoly Yakovenko, a co-founder of Solana Labs, ripped the creators of racist and antisemitic memecoins with a one-liner.
“F’ these anti-Semitic racist incels,” Yakovenko posted on X.
Yet Solana – where 20,000 tokens are created daily, according to Crypto Slate – announced no plans to condemn or remove the racist memecoins, with the tokens remaining on the blockchain platform as of Monday. Yakovenko didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
In March, Bitcoin’s value reached a new all-time high, surging past $70,000 and signaling a crypto resurgence two years after the market crash left FTX and other major crypto companies bankrupt.
Memecoins – cryptocurrencies based on online jokes – have rapidly spiked in value too, particularly those deployed on the Solana blockchain, according to Mashable. To take off, however, meme coins have to go viral first.
The torrent of racist tokens sparked an online debate on whether hate speech can or should be moderated on decentralized blockchain platforms like Solana.
“This type of bottom tier memecoins are what happens when you have a “open and free decentralized financial system… This is actual ‘free speech,’” posted crypto influencer AutismCapital on X.
“The permission for kids to make racist ponzis and laugh with their friends about it. This is not a condemnation of Solana or open financial systems. This is us saying, this comes with the territory and is a consequence of inclusion. Must learn to accept it.”
Solana has gained traction in the crypto community for its low transaction costs compared to other blockchains.
Traders expressed concerns over the trend spilling Solana’s reputation for a mainstream audience.
“The future of finance,” sarcastically tweeted a user, posting image grabs of tokens named “Kate wif cancer” and a picture of Adolf Hitler with the phrase “I was right” among other obscure tokens traded.
Blockchain users tried to counteract the racist tokens, with the value of the ‘Stop Racism on Solana’ asset rising by roughly 19,000% in value in just 24 hours, online crypto published Coin Page reported.
Prior, memecoins gained public recognition as tokens with cute animal memes, with Dogecoin as the largest.
Other major crypto token listing websites also grappled with the surge of controversial memecoins.
One of them, the decentralized exchange analytics platform DEX Screener announced it plans to review its “token profile moderation policy in the coming days.”
“We won’t be the gatekeepers of what happens on-chain, but we’re definitely not here to spread hate,” the company posted on X last week.
Yet, the racist tokens created on the Solana blockchain were still on DEX Screener as of Monday.
